A. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to wireless telephone systems, and more particularly to a system in which a wireless call can be paid by either a telephone subscriber or by the calling party. The system described herein is adaptable to operate in conjunction with both prepaid and postpaid wireless systems. Although the invention is described in conjunction with cellular telephone systems, its principles are equally applicable to other wireless telephone systems such as satellite systems and the like.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Presently, at least in the United States, a cellular telephone subscriber (i.e., the person or entity responsible for payment for services) is charged for both incoming and outgoing calls and receives a bill for these charges on a regular basis (for example, once a month). This arrangement discourages subscribers from maximizing the use of their telephones both with respect to the amount and duration of these calls. For example, in many instances, subscribers do not give out their cellular telephone numbers because they do not want to be charged for undesirable or excessive incoming calls. In fact, in order to protect themselves even further, many subscribers shut off their cellular telephones completely between outgoing calls. Hence very often callers desiring to reach these subscribers cannot reach these subscribers even if the callers have information important to the subscribers. This arrangement is therefore disadvantageous to callers and subscribers.
The arrangement is also disadvantageous to cellular service providers (CSPs) since they are in the business of selling ‘air time’ during which callers are connected to subscribers. If subscribers intentionally limit the number of their calls by distributing their telephone numbers only to a small number of potential callers and/or by turning off their cellular telephones, the net voice traffic and revenues of the CSPs are naturally reduced. A further disadvantage to CSPs is that potential subscribers, used to the To conventional land-based telephone systems in which the calling party always pays for each call (with the exception of special services, like collect calls), may not join a cellular telephone system at all because they are cost conscious.
There are two billing systems presently available for the payment of telephone communication (including wireless communication) services: post paid (or standard) and prepaid. When a subscriber signs up for postpaid billing, he receives a bill on a regular basis (typically once a month) for communication charges previously incurred. In this system, a subscriber can charge as much or as little as he wants on his bill.
Prepaid billing refers to a system in which a subscriber prepays for communication services. In this system, a subscriber either buys a card of a predetermined face value, for which then an account is established, or establishes a prepaid account with predetermined funds. Thus each account is good for a certain amount of air time. When the air time for a certain account is used up, the customer must pay for additional air time before he is allowed to access the communication services.
Both billing systems are available for land-based and wireless communication systems.
A customer using a prepaid cellular telephone is charged for incoming calls, just like the standard cellular telephone customer, so that each incoming call reduces the amount of air time available to that customer. Thus existing prepaid cellular telephone systems have the same disadvantages as the postpaid cellular telephone systems described above.